Red pitaya – dragon fruit

Ok, election is over and I better get back to my regular food posts before my readers all run away. Sorry for the lack of updates in the last week because I was smitten with the drama and upheavals of our local politics. For those who are not from Malaysia, my little island was taken over by a totally new government yesterday and we hope we have a more dynamic governance in future.

The pitaya (also known as pitahaya, dragon fruit, huÇ’ lÃ³ng guÇ’ (ç«é¾æžœ/ç«é¾™æžœ lit. “fire dragon fruit”), strawberry pear, nanettikafruit, or thanh long) is the fruit of several cactus species, especially of the genus Hylocereus, but also see Stenocereus.

(Wiki)

A lot of people do not like the taste of dragon fruits and my kids have very gross description of it. Do you know that if you ate too much dragon fruits, you will produce reddish urine as well? I bought three the other day because it was going cheap at Jusco. Otherwise, on normal days, dragon fruit is one of those things that I don’t eat.

They are slimey, not sweet and has no taste. However, this red variety has a hint of sandalwood smell. My son said “Ewww…I am like eating joss-sticks.”

So how do you enjoy dragon fruits? I usually cut into half and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Some people suggest sprinkling some sugar on them to make it more palatable.

I wonder how many dragon fruit do I need to eat before I ‘produce’ what looks like a messed up intestine? LOL. Please ignore my gross description but seriously, I do not like dragon fruits. I bought them because they are cheap at RM1.59 per fruit and they make interesting object for photography. However, I soon discovered that it is hard to take nice photo of things that red because my camera probably went crazy with its white balance setting.

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7 thoughts on “Red pitaya – dragon fruit”

sweet21

May

(March 11, 2008 - 3:38 pm)

I never like this fruit either. The one I tried had a white flesh. Maybe the white flesh will not cos red urine?

Mia

(March 12, 2008 - 3:07 pm)

i beg to differ. Dragonfruit is one of my favourite fruits! Maybe you were just unlucky and didn’t manage to get hold of a sweet one. I have no idea how do you check for that but i do realise the red ones tend to be sweeter than the white.

When you do really get a good one like i have, eat it really cold and chilled, cut into cubes or bitesizes therefore you prevent from getting the gooey slimy flesh from just scooping with a spoon. Trust me it taste really good sweet, cold and firm!!! You can even use a melon baller to scoop out the flesh if making a fruit salad, it’s really really really goooooooood 🙂